It can be run by anyone, as long as the receiver in question has enough room between him and the sideline to executive a fake into the flat. The niners like to use it with their tight ends, even with Michael Crabtree when he's lined up tight to the OL. Hell, I've seen them send their FB on a wheel route.

Right, but the inside receiver usually doesn't have to deal with press coverage so I don't know if the wheel route accurately describes what /u/Zosoer was asking...though it mostly does so I can't really argue too much against it

I'm sure some systems may have a 2 receiver wheel pattern but usually a wheel is an "out and go" route. I get what you are saying that the outside receiver clears out of the zone but its not necessary.

no. slant is always to the middle of the field. slant and go would be a slant followed by a streak. the slant is usually accompanied by a pump fake by the QB. This is trying to make the corners and safeties bite on the slant so you can beat them on the deep route. wheel routes can be run by anyone in the middle of the formation. they run into the flats and then turn up the sideline.

Sluggo is slant, then go (called fade in the op). You start to run a slant towards the middle of the field, then break it off a couple steps in and run a go route up the sideline. Idk if running towards the sideline, then a go is also called a sluggo but all these terms are kinda team-or-system-specific anyways.

I think the "opposite of the fade" is close enough. Running a seam route does generally mean you'll bend the route slightly, adjusting for the horizontal position of the safeties. It's rarely run straight up field.

Streak, Fade, Go, Straight. Often they are all interchangeable but a Fade is actually different than a streak (at least from what I coach in Canadian Highschool football).

Fades are often run in the endzone (Megatron does them a lot). The QB just throws it up to a known location. With a streak, the QB throws it to where the WR is going to be depending on his exact route.

It depends on location and league. I played 3-down Canadian rules in High school, but my summer rep league (high school age players) played 4-down Canadian rules. I met other guys from across the country who had played 4-down American rules on an American sized field as well.

One time when my High School JV team (playing traditional 3-down Canadian) made it to regional playoffs, they went up against a school from another conference that played a hybrid 4-down Canadian/American rules (they had fair catches, no 1-yd buffer, 12 players, Canadian field). We ended up playing one half with our rules and one half with theirs - still remains one of the wierder games I've seen.

If you're refering to the game, yeah it was a doozy; even the refs had to call stops between plays to figure out what was going on from time to time (aside from your normal conferencing, lots of going back and forth to the coaches to clarify how they were ruling plays etc.). It kind of worked out in our favour though because our team was accustomed to playing 3-down so the extra down gave us more freedom in play selection. On the opposite side, their QB was losing track of D&D, from time to time when it was 3-down rules in effect. Felt kind of bad for the kid to be honest.

There's actually two types of fades - the open field one which is like everyone is describing, slowly fade to the sideline, and an endzone fade which the guy just runs towards the pylon and the QB throws a jump ball.

As a Bear fan, I can tell you that this chart is woefully incomplete. At a minimum, it is missing the "run to the open spot in the zone and fall down" route, "collide with another receiver crossing the middle" route, and the "comeback but don't really comeback thereby causing a pick 6" route.

Jay has to be feeling pretty good at this point in the off season, though. Marshall, Jeffrey, E. Bennett, and M. Bennett is a top 5 receiving corps in my opinion, and if they can get this offensive line up to mediocre, he should have a much better year.

I've always been a Cutler apologist though, so take that with a grain of salt. I think 50%+ of his interceptions were caused by poor receiving and forcing the ball because of poor pass blocking.

Those were the days. Playing flag football, the coach would always give the only good kid on our team a specific route, and tell the rest of us to 'get open'. As a chubby lineman, I probably should have known that this did not include me.

I was pretty lame when it came to lunch time football. I was more or less useless. It got to the point where I would only be '"covered" in a half-ass status. Finally I convinced my team that I was more or less open every damn play and just throw me the ball.

My buddy was QB-ing for a down and took pity. I made a running grab and got a TD. I had that one TD and everyone was stunned, even the other team. They were all cheering becasue "Even Thad got a TD!". Good memory.

Oh yeah? Well on a team of kids who had like 5 wins over the course of eight seasons (two per year), I only ever scored a 2 point conversion because the other team decided that they didn't even need to cover me. It shouldn't even have counted because I kneed down to catch it, and in this league you couldn't catch the ball if you were 'down'. The only reason they gave us the point was because we were down like 20 with 3 minutes left. So ha!

as an adult who plays flag football, this strategy works out really well for us. Since teams wont guard me for usually the first half. Takes a few big plays for them to figure out that the 250lb guy lining up in the slot can actually catch the ball, thats why he's out there playing on the championship team.

I never really played flag football, but we had a similar play for me in my 8th grade basketball team. It was called, "Jump up, get the rebound and throw the ball to the black kid. And for God's sake, don't dribble." (I was 5' 10" in 8th grade.)

"Okay, you run to the mailbox then turn right, then turn left. Jimmy, stand behind Tommy and run a criss-cross with George. Make sure to stop at Mrs. Davis' car. Mark, you're the fastest so just run straight."

Although it was unpopular, I actually like the removal of "sprint" from Madden 11, made you really pay attention on a run. The game makes you read the defense on pass plays, why not continue doing so with run plays?

Because EA is in cruise control with the Madden franchise (and most of their games). They change the menus and the rosters every year, and charge everyone $60 for the same game. And we're all stupid enough to continue buying it because we love football.

I coach at a high school and every so often some kid shows up with his dad right behind him for the first day of practice. This is the gamer kid that's pretty over weight so the parents sign him up even though they have no interest in football. This is the kid I tell to buy a copy o the the way home. Within two weeks this kid knows how to down block, pull, kick slide and how the play develops. That game can be really useful too, I designed my first defensive playbook using the Tampa Bay D then tramsfered it to power point and on from there!

Yes, and some route trees look slightly different. For instance the one my high school football team used included the fade route and the streak route. And the routes were numbered left to right for each level

every team I played for had the numbers opposite of this graph. the odds numbers were cuts into the middle, and evens were cuts to the outside. i.e. post was 7 and corner was 8.
seeing it like this is kinda weird, but same idea i guess

I know everyone is like "My high school did it different!" but we always used the quick out as where the hitch was and vice versa. Made sense to me because the quick out was a real short run, followed by running out of bounds.

Not bad, but it is also missing the "drag" route, which is a lot closer to the line of scrimmage than the dig route. Not sure how common it is in real life as opposed to Madden, but I've definitely seen it being run.

Of course, it's also missing literally every route out of the backfield, but that would be an entirely different graphic.

Browns run the drag a lot. It's one of Brandon Weeden's favorites; but it's so close to the line and he throws so damned low that he often pegs offensive linemen in the back of the head. This is also why he has the most batted down passes in the NFL.

If we put an 11 man offense vs. only JJ Watt, Weeden would still find a way to get at least 5 passes deflected. 3 by Watt, 2 by Joe Thomas.

It looks like two different routes, but the general concept is the same.

On a normal fade you run straight but want the defender on your inside shoulder, so sometimes you'll be going slightly towards the sideline to make that happen. The QB then throws the ball between you and the sideline so your body blocks the defender from making a play on it.

The end zone fade is the same concept, but in such a short space, your effort to get outside of the defender becomes more exaggerated.

There are a great deal of other routes that are staples of offenses that are not in the standard "passing tree." These include drags, post-corners/flags, and china routes. Out of the backfield you also have angles, swings, and flats routes.

I play semi-pro football and our offense absolutely uses a variant of the standard passing tree. So for example a play may be called Indy right fake 34 power 979. From this you get the formation (Indy = I Form), the strength call (Right - TE to the right), the Play Action call (3 back through the 4 hole with the FB leading into that hole), and the routes for the receivers - which we call left to right. So left receiver streak, TE post, right receiver streak.

Difficult to show on a route tree, without also showing blockers and the type of screen. It's run differently depending on the above criteria. From a simple step back, to moving laterally to the QB, to a step forward like you're the one blocking before stepping back, etc etc.

In case anyone doesnt know, this is outdated information. This is Bill Walsh psuedo west coast offense route tree stuff. You would calls plays like something something giving formation information then call out like 3-8-6 after and that would give the receivers their routes. It was a great system for audibles and very easy to learn.

Offenses are much MUCH more complex now with route patterns and double moves and on the fly route adjustments based off the defensive coverage and so on. Either someone on here, or some website I stumbled upon explained in very great detail the evolution to this system and the evolution from this system. I am not an expert and my information is second hand and some of it may be wrong, but I know the route tree style of offense is not used in the NFL anymore, at least not as the main offensive game plan like it was In Walsh's day.

I don't think a slant into the sideline would make any sense -- the whole point is that you shift your body to box out opposing CBs. going to the sideline, you would be in terrible position to catch the ball. Run a little deeper, It's something like a corner/fade route.

My high school team had an "arrow" route that featured a receiver/half back type player who is lined up a little to the outside of the tackle that was kind of like a slant to the sideline. It was a straight route towards the sideline but not parallel to the line of scrimmage (aiming a little upfield). So yes it is possible, just depends on your system

The route tree is still the same, but they have a lot more leeway in where they will break off their route based on the coverage. Their routes will change somewhat drastically whether they're into the boundary (the short side of the field) or to the field (the wider part of the field) and based on what coverage the defense shows at the snap. When they're on the field they're often the "hot" route where if the defense is showing blitz they will change what they're running to a quick route so that the quarterback has a place to dump off the ball in the face of pressure.

Don't for get the bubble screen, quick screen, comeback screen, mesh, stick, wheel, post-corner, corner-post, slant n' go, seam/skinny post, and any variation of these that change depending on the coverage.